Within the contemporary poetry scene Yang Ke is unique. He has exhibited through his work a deeply personalised historical imagination and a steely regard for truth. his urban poetry has created a unusual subjectivity. For over thirty years his writing, which is heavily informed by traditional Chinese poetry, has struck out upon an alternative path. His work is characterised by both an intense emotional appeal and also a constant drive towards a more innovative poetics. I have had the honour to meet the poet Yang Ke on a number of occasions in both Cambridge and China. I have enjoyed his presence at the Cambridge Xu Zhimo Poetry and Arts Festival, where he was awarded a special prize. So, it is an poetry to be published by Cam Rivers Publishing. It is well known that poetry is the hardest of all art forms to translate between cultures. Music, painting, drama can all be appreciated for themselves, but poetry is multi-layered and refers to many things outside the words, already stored in the reader's experience. Almost all of its references are lost in translation, as is much of the rhythm, rhyme and diction, which gives the original force. So, I had expected that when I came to hear and read Yang Ke's poetry, I would feel the same sense of disappointment and puzzlement that I normally feel when I try to explain, this is not the case. Instead, I read his poems with as much, or almost as much, pleasure as I read other T.S. Elliot, Dylan Thomas. This is in part because I know the landscapes and people of China from seventeen visits there, and Yet there are also other features which make his poetry powerful, even in translation. There is great energy and movement, both in the words and ideas, and yet there is also a contrasted stillness and peace at their heart. I wonder whether this is related to a Buddhist or even Daoist meditative strain in the work? There is great variety, both within each poem and in the subject matter of the poems. They range from minut